Where is D.A.V.E – uses for portable wireless storage devices

What could one do with a portable hard-drive that can be connected to wirelessly? And with software API to boot. More than one can think!

Robert Scoble has a video interview with a Seagate exec about D.A.V.E/DAVE, the new device they are releasing in the coming months. It is envisaged to be an external storage device for person’s other gadgets with limited memory, such as mobile phones, mp3 players, etc.

They do mention however that there is a device-to-device replication mode. This I think is where it will get interesting for other purposes.

Specifically, I am thinking of public demonstrations and democracy aspects. There had been a long tradition of taking pictures of police response when that response overstep the line and limits. Unfortunately, the same policemen who cross the line of legality like to confiscate and erase the tapes as well.

This is slowly becoming harder to do with proliferation of the camera-phones, but DAVE can change the situation much faster and with more impact for situations known to be dangerous in advance.

All one needs is a digital camera with a wireless transmitter. That is partnered with another - less noticeable - person’s DAVE and the pictures get offloaded in real-time. If the journalist is stopped, the person with the DAVE device may still be able to escape and deliver the photographs/video in time.

Alternatively, it might be possible to setup multiple DAVEs as retransmittion way-points with the content duplicated among many people, with some very far from the demonstration. That way even a live feed might be possible.

The society is becoming more and more transparent in many ways that cause concern. It is good to see that at least some of these technologies can also help keeping the real democracy alive.